Producing leaders in clinical research is a major goal at UT Southwestern. Over the past four years our K30training program in patient-oriented research (POR) has enrolled over 130 trainees, 65 of whom remainactive, and 34 have submitted over 120 grants of which 43% have been funded. Thirty additional full-timefaculty mentors have been recruited among whom 17 are basic scientists. In this competitive renewalapplication we intend to move closer to our goal by fulfilling the following Specific aims: 1) Provide in-depthtraining and practical experience to foster development of independent (RO-1 funded) -investigators by: a)expanding the curriculum with new interactive courses in genetics and proteomics, clinical pharmacologyand drug development, grant writing, translational research, and management; b) creation of dualmentorship of trainees by basic and clinical researchers to enhance scientific rigor and translationalresearch; c) providing practical experience in a mentored POR project; d) beginning the process of writingand submitting a career development award application. In addition, our expanded K30 curriculum willserve as a template for a Masters Degree program in POR, support mentorship as an academic activity andcatalyze further procurement of T32, K12, K24 and F32 grants; and 2) Evolve the training program into aself-sustaining (K30-independent) program by the year 2010. To accomplish this aim we will integrateadministrative, mentoring and didactic training components into the new Department of Biostatistics andClinical Science at UT Southwestern, a core clinical research education, training and service facility forClinical researchers that will become an Academic department in 2004. Our new expanded curriculum is,comprehensive, broad-based and takes advantage of the best basic and clinical science resources at UTSouthwestern. Continuing support of this grant is critical for UT Southwestern's mission and will ensure thatour training program in POR continues to be highly successful and on track to produce leaders in POR.
